Themes: Race Relations, Rise and Fall Stories, Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance
Main Cast: James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert, Joel Fluellen, Chester Morris
Release Year: 1970
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Although the characters' names were changed, The Great White Hope was a thinly veiled account of the trials and tribulations of boxer Jack Johnson, based on the play by Howard Sackler and directed by Martin Ritt. James Earl Jones stars as boxing great Jack Jefferson, who defeats Frank Bardy Larry Pennell in a Reno, Nevada bout to become the world's first black heavyweight champion. After crossing a state line with his white girlfriend Eleanor (Jane Alexander in her feature debut), however, Jack is arrested and tried under the miscegenation-barring Mann Act. Found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, Jack escapes and leaves the U.S., but he's dogged by his now bad reputation and can't get honest work as a fighter. Offered his freedom from criminal charges if he'll agree to a fixed fight in Cuba that will restore the title to a white contender, Jack refuses and Eleanor commits suicide, their life on the run overwhelming her. Jack finally accepts the bout in Havana, but he fights his opponent with everything he's got. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Martin Ritt's screen adaptation of the Howard Sackler play which catapulted James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander to fame in 1967 remains essentially the filmed record of a stage work, but in its stinging eloquence, and in what is arguably Jones' finest performance on film, it retains a rewarding vitality. Set in 1910, the story of Jack Jefferson (Jones) and his attempt to establish his preeminence as the world heavyweight champion in the face of a white world which conspired against him, it's loosely based on the tragic life of Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champ. Like the play, the film reveals the ugliness of the boxer's life as a marked man after winning the heavyweight crown, hounded by boxing officials and politicians who used the illegality of his marriage to a white woman (Alexander) to keep on the run and out of the ring. Despite its huge cast of characters and backdrops spread across five continents, the film's tragic hero evokes virtually imprisoned classical figures such as Milton's Samson and Sophocles' Philoctetes, also gifted men unjustly tormented. Jones' towering performance gives voice to the pride and intelligence which makes the boxer's suffering even more acute, as he watches his career destroyed by racist cowards. Alexander in the lesser role of his tragic mate is easily his equal. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Jack Martin Smith - Art Director, Donald McKayle - Choreography, Irene Sharaff - Costume Designer, Tim Zinnemann - First Assistant Director, Martin Ritt - Director, William H. Reynolds - Editor, Lionel Newman - Composer (Music Score), Jesse Fuller - Songwriter, Paul Stanhope - Makeup, Dan Striepeke - Makeup, Ed Butterworth - Makeup, John De Cuir - Production Designer, Burnett Guffey - Cinematographer, Lawrence Turman - Producer, Raphael Bretton - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, Jack Solomon - Sound/Sound Designer, Vinton Vernon - Sound/Sound Designer, Theodore Soderberg - Sound/Sound Designer, Howard O. Sackler - Screenwriter, Marvin Weldon - Script Supervisor
